Tiangong is really not beautiful, on the eighth day of the eighth month of August, the day is still sunny, and it rains in the evening, but for the candidates, although the rain will cause a lot of inconvenience, but this rain is not for him alone, everyone is inconvenient, it doesn't matter, what you want is a fair environment, as long as it is fair, even if it is bad, it seems to be able to endure it - Zhang Yuan is not so fair, and he is not allowed to be clean on the eighth day of the first month, and the rumors of buying the joints of the marking officer are still affecting him, and there are constantly members of the Han Society to ask" Once on the blue sky", although Zhang Yuan had already taken precautions, wrote a piece of paper on the bow of the boat to explain, but there are still people who want to ask face to face, Zhang Yuan asked his senior brother Wang Binglin to go to Zhang Dai's boat, so as not to affect the senior brother, what about himself, well, just take all this as a temper, the sky wants to descend to the Si people - in the evening, no one came to disturb it, dozens of boats moored in this bay were quietly sleeping in the twilight drizzle, maybe the candidates on the boat were really asleep, recuperating, Zhang Yuan checked the examination basket, stationery, stove, and tile bowl, food, charcoal, oilcloth, check that there are no mistakes or omissions, then lie down with clothes, close your eyes and recuperate, Mu Zhenzhen and others on the boat are tiptoeing when they walk, the sky outside the boat is very dark, the raindrops seem to be ink, and they keep falling, soaking the mountains and rivers of this world into thick black and deep - after the second drum, Zhang Yuan sat up, and Mu Zhenzhen, who had been waiting outside the cabin, heard the movement, and immediately came in to light the lamp, and asked: "Young master, are you resting well?" ”

Zhang Yuan said: "Very good-really, go prepare water, I want to bathe." ”

Soak in a hot bath and eat a big bowl of meat stuffed plaque food, this is really done, the most suitable for Zhang Yuan's taste, when Zhang Yuan ate the plaque food, Mu Zhenzhen helped him comb his hair, Zhang Yuan said: "Just pull a bun, and then dissolve your hair when you search and inspect it." ”

Mu Zhenzhen refused to be casual, but still tied Zhang Yuan's hair tightly and was very energetic.

Zhang Dai from the neighboring boat was shouting: "Jie Zi, come and eat Ge Lao cake together——"

Zhang Yuan pushed open the tent window and responded: "Big brother, I have eaten, you eat yourself." "The rain is coming in, hurry up and close the window.

At the beginning of the hour, the drizzle, Zhang Yuan, Zhang Dai, Qi Biaojia, Wang Binglin, Zhou Monong, Huang Zunsu, Ni Yuanlu came to the east gate of Hangzhou Gongyuan, the eight counties of Shaoxing Prefecture, each county has a long card lamp, the name of the candidate is written on the lampshade, because of the rain, the name on the lampshade is a little confused, but the high-legged lantern that can prevent light rain is held high and low above the head, there is a sea of lights above the crowd, noisy and arrogant, and the screen is shining - and there is only a trace of rain now, Zhang Yuan put away the umbrella in his hand and handed it to Mu Zhenzhen, He took the exam basket and the bowl tied together from Laifu and carried it on his back, that Qi Biaojia was fourteen years old, and it was more difficult to carry these things, but at this time, no one could help him, he was too busy to take care of himself, and he had to rely on himself - those who rushed to take the exam, those who sent the exam, squeezed vigorously, it seemed that they could have been in high school first, and they could have entered the entrance more quickly and sequentially, and there was plenty of time, but they were just squeezed, and those who sent the exam did not retreat, it was a mess, Zhang Yuan, Zhang Dai, and Zhou Menong protected Qi Biaojia, lest he let people scatter, The four of them crowded together under the county governor's lamp outside the east gate, and saw that the county's Confucian scholar Zhu Xundao was beckoning the candidates of Shanyin to gather under the lamp, and Sun Jiaoyu must have been transferred to the inner curtain and assigned to each room to prepare for the reading of the papers-about a moment later, the prison officer opened the east gate, and He Rushen, the political envoy of Zhejiang, who served as the promotion officer, personally named him, and the school officials of the eight counties of Shaoxing Prefecture stood under several bright lanterns to identify the candidates in the county one by one, and after the roll call and confirmation, they entered the door to accept the search, and the battalion soldiers in Hangzhou were responsible for the search, and there was only one chance to be this messenger once in their lives, Extra serious and responsible, undressing, distribution, take off socks like a lot, the pen, ink, inkstone, food in the food box in the basket to check one by one, the oilcloth also unfolded to the light to shine a light, to see if there is handwriting on it - Zhang Yuan is now not like the county test, the road test was searched when he felt humiliated and indignant, this road of the examination must be crossed, hard work, hard work, but for that day to send a big responsibility, only in this way self-relief, besides, not to search and check, the temptation to raise people's fame is too great, people's ** Swelled up and even the sage teaching, etiquette, righteousness and shame can not be restrained, just like a college graduate to take the civil service examination, once passed the customs can be the head of the government or even the county magistrate, then it is not red-eyed to do everything, not strict search and inspection, just in front of Zhang Yuan, a candidate in Shanyin was searched by the battalion soldiers from under the inkstone to find a stack of gold foil paper with fly's head written in small characters, was forked out and stood in front of the dragon gate to show the public, Zhang Yuan remembered that there was an old Confucian student who also cheated in this method during the government examination the year before last, and was caught red-handed, it seems that they Shaoxing people are popular with this cheating method- Zhang Yuan's two candles were confiscated, the sergeant said that the number house would issue candles, and the candidates were not allowed to bring them in privately, Zhang Yuan tied his hair in a bun, packed up his clothes, carried the examination basket and the stove bowl food box, received twelve pieces of grass rolls and twelve scrolls, and looked at the number card in his hand, which was the sixth room of the "Dragon" number house, Hangzhou Gongyuan was large-scale, named after the thousand-character text order of "Heaven and Earth Xuanhuang Universe Flood Wilderness", each number of houses has ten rooms, and can accommodate up to 10,000 candidates to take the exam at the same time - Zhang Dai has gone in first, and Qi Biaojia followed behind Zhang Yuan, also searched, Zhang Yuan asked him: "Huzi, which room are you?" ”

Qi Biaojia struggled to carry the test basket and other utensils, and said in a muffled voice: "I'm in room No. 1 in Longzi." ”

Zhang Yuan said "uh", and said in his heart: "The tiger is so miserable, there is a public toilet next to the No. 1 room, so the No. 1 room is called the 'number', and it can be regarded as bad luck when assigned to this room." Comforted: "Now the weather is cold, and it is a rainy day, the smell will not be too big, you just have to concentrate on the exam, and you will not smell the smell of abalone for a long time." He added: "I am also a dragon house." ”

Qi Biaojia said "um", this young prodigy was very unhappy.

Walk through two major gates, you will see the three-storey cornice, the meteorological majestic Mingyuan Building, this building is condescending, the invigilator, the inspector can go up the building to look, check whether the candidates have personal contacts, whether the delinquent has the disadvantages of passing the traffic - after the Mingyuan Building, in the middle is the lobby of the seven wings to the public hall, the couplets on both sides say: "The number of the east and west, two Wenguang salvo fight; The curtain is divided inside and outside, and there is no ventilation at all. It is said that the god of the examination is Zhang Fei of the Three Kingdoms, why is Zhang Fei instead of the second brother Guan, no one can say clearly, there is a big red flag in front of the examination, and there are eight big characters in the book "There is revenge and revenge", which is to call the ghost to take revenge, it is said that the candidates who have done things that hurt the heavens and the lack of virtue will be haunted by the ghosts, and will write their sins on the exam papers without knowing it, of course, this is just a legend, the Ming Dynasty has been two hundred years since then, I have never seen a candidate who does not write a bagu essay but writes a confession, but in this way, the atmosphere of the field is both strict and gloomy, especially at this time it is only three or four watches - the lanterns on both sides of the road are high, the rain is flying in the lantern light, the rows of houses are simply not visible in the dark night, the word "dragon" is sorted as seventy-third in the thousand-character text, Zhang Yuan and Qi Biaojia are lined up to find the past, and after the "Xiang" word house, it is here, each house has a door, there are sergeants guarding in front of the door, and they looked at the number plate of Zhang Yuan and the two, and let the two go in, There are ten rooms in the house, there is a four-foot-wide alley, the wall is eight feet high, there are two lanterns hanging at one end and one tail, and there are two water tanks, which are used to fight fires, ten soldiers are waiting, the township examination is extremely strict, each candidate has a sergeant to guard, called the army - room 10 is on the outside, room 1 is in the innermost, Qi Biaojia nodded to Zhang Yuan, carrying the examination basket and other utensils to the inside, Zhang Yuan stood in front of his sixth room, the army with the word "Lu" printed on his chest and back looked at him, and asked: "Xianggong's surname?" ”

Zhang Yuan said with a smile: "The surname is Zhang, and I want to ask this military brother to take care of it." ”

This army heard Zhang Yuan call him "big brother of the army", this fresh, grinned and said: "It's good to say, the prime minister only cares about the exam, and the miscellaneous work of the stove and boiling water is done on behalf of the minister." ”

Zhang Yuan said: "Don't dare to work, there is no money to reward you." "How can you bring money when you enter the department, do you want to pay bribes?

The soldier said: "Whatever the Xianggong says, he is idle anyway." ”

Zhang Yuan thanked him, left the tandoor in front of the door, and carried the test basket into the No. room, which was low and high in front of the house, low and low-roof eaves, and had to bend down and bow his head when he entered, the No. room was four feet deep, three feet wide, and six feet high, with the glimmer of the lantern in the narrow alley, Zhang Yuan saw two pine planks up to one inch thick on the side, so he put a large wooden board on the brick support, which is the writing board, and the other narrower wooden board is cushioned under the brick support, this is the seat, extremely simple, both elbows can not be fully opened, but I have seen the joint seat of the county examination and the government examination shed, Of course, this single room is very good - the brick floor is very damp, and there may be some rain leakage in this room, so Zhang Yuan nailed the oilcloth to the low beam of the room to cover the place of the writing board, and the exam paper must not be wet by water, otherwise it will be in vain.

After doing this, I heard the gate of the "Dragon" brand room put down, which showed that all the ten candidates of the "Dragon" number had arrived, and it was only four days at this time, and there was still more than an hour before dawn, and the exam questions would not be passed down at this time, Zhang Yuan put together two pine planks, curled up and lay on his side, whether he could sleep or not, first nourished his spirit, he was dazed and just a little sleepy, and he heard the sound of drums and horns in Mingyuan Building not far away, and there was a hoarse voice shouting "Revenge and revenge", shouting again and again- Zhang Yuan sat up and cursed in a mutter, this is purely a toss, how many nerves do you have to be able to sleep, is this a test of the psychological quality of the scholar!

Zhang Yuan scolded and laughed, shook his head, and fell asleep again, feeling that he had just fallen asleep, and the army shouted: "Xianggong get up quickly, the title paper is here." ”

Zhang Yuan hurriedly sat up, and saw that the genius was bright, and the army was holding a one-foot-square examination paper in his hand, the paper was slightly yellow, and when he took it and looked at it, it was printed with seven lines of words, which was the first seven questions, and the first question was "Fear of the Lord and the Words of the Saint" - After the fraud case in the 22nd year of Jiajing, it was stipulated that the examination questions should be decided by the chief examiner, the deputy chief examiner, the supervisor and the same examiner in the two hours before the examination began. It is also difficult to leak the exam questions in this way, of course, even this is not without the possibility of cheating - seeing the questions, all the uneasiness, worry, apprehension, and anxiety of Zhang Yuan's previous ones have disappeared, and the unremitting eight-strand training allows him to quickly enter the composition situation, solve the questions, break the questions, and solve the questions first - Zhang Yuan read the seven exam questions once, four questions and four book questions, one question each in "Analects", "Mencius", "University", and "The Mean", and three questions in the "Spring and Autumn Period" - saw the questions clearly, Zhang Yuan set up the table and chairs, and then went to solve the problem, Seeing that Qi Biaojia, who was next to the toilet, was supporting the table, and the candidates couldn't talk to each other, the two glanced at each other and nodded with a smile.

Zhang Yuan saw that some candidates had been impatient to start grinding ink composition, seven articles and eight strands, it was indeed necessary to hurry, but Zhang Yuan was not in a hurry, he returned to his room, the stove first, the army wanted to help, he politely declined, borrowed a fire, lit charcoal, and began to cook eight-treasure porridge, when cooking eight-treasure porridge, he hurried to grind the ink, on the surface it seemed to be doing all this, but his mind was conceiving the first art "fear of the words of the sage", to polish the ink, the first art has been completed in his mind, and he wrote on the grass scroll:

"It is more fearful of a gentleman, and it is also within the reach of the mandate of heaven—"

This broken question is like a sword to the west of a thousand cliffs arch column, very imposing, has an eye-catching effect, Zhang Yuan's pen does not stop the book, the topic, the talk, the stock relative, to the eight treasures porridge cooked, his first art is also done, more than 300 words, deliberately altered a few places, the grass roll will be like the grass roll, if the word is good, will be suspected of knowing the exam questions in advance, although the gentleman is frank, but pay attention to these small details, a little sophisticated, can avoid some unnecessary troubles - the importance of the first first art is needless to say, Zhang Yuan dare to be rash, His art is elegant and pure, with the style of returning to the light and Tang Shunzhi, which is exactly the "ancient text as the current text" advocated by Qian Qianyi, and Zhang Yuan's thoughts on this article are also very orthodox, because the examination paper must first be seen by the examiner, and the examiner takes a fancy to it, and writes a comment at the end of the volume, recommending it to the room official, and the room official takes a fancy to it, and writes a comment to recommend it to the deputy chief examiner, and then decides by the chief examiner Qian Qianyi. You can't pin your hopes on Qian Qianyi to search for rolls in various rooms, there are not often good stories like Mr. Jiao and Senior Brother Xu, and there are often many famous people with eight shares of names falling to Sun Shan - Zhang Yuan sees it very thoroughly, Bagu Wen is a stepping stone, the field is not a stage for expressing unique opinions and expressing one's own thoughts, to promote unconventional ideas can be done outside the field, on other occasions, here, only need to make a customs clearance of the eight strands, the surname of the late Ming Dynasty is carried forward, many talented people are disgusted with traditional Confucianism, refuse to be brainwashed, Therefore, when writing in the field house, he is often unstoppable, swaying vertically and horizontally, and giving full play, of course, there are high school students, and they are often ranked first, just like Xu Guangqi, but most of them are trapped in the field house, like Xu Wenchang, like Wen Zhenmeng, like Feng Menglong - and Zhang Yuan, is not brainwashed by traditional Confucianism so that he has no thoughts of his own, he can get in and out, he has only one purpose, that is, to pass the township test.

(To be continued)